Londesborough Park’s 1st XI, sponsored by Britcom International, locked horns with old adversaries Clifton Alliance last weekend and continued their good recent form with a six wicket victory.
Having been set a target of 141 openers Greg Drewery and James Beevers laid a solid platform of 46 before the latter became Joe Kilvington’s first victim, caught by Liam Green. The skipper moved on to 34 but departed in identical fashion and Phil Stothard, making a welcomed return to the side, succumbed to a rare blob. With the board showing 72 for 3 Tom Eagling joined Charlie Rook and eased the Park towards their target in a partnership of 55, curtailed when Rook was skittled by Green for 32. Sam Dodd then anchored one end, leaving Eagling to score the winning runs in an undefeated knock of 40.
Earlier Drewery chose to insert the hosts and saw his bowlers take wickets on a regular basis throughout the innings as only 4 batsmen reached double figures, opposing skipper Matthew Phillips top scoring with 31 whilst key men John Myers (7) and Jason Gatus (3) made little impact. The Park’s fielders held 6 catches and Joe Shingles claimed two run outs. Tom Sowersby took the bowling honours with 3 for 28, supported by Charlie Rook with 2 for 30 and other wickets for Ciaran Brooke, Joe Shingles and James Beevers.
This victory moves the Park up to 4th in the division in advance of a home fixture this Saturday against Heworth 2nd XI. The Clifton match ball was kindly sponsored by Holmemade Bakery.
Clifton Alliance 2nd XI 140 (M Phillips 31, T Sowersby 3-28) Londesborough Park 1st XI 143-4 (T Eagling 40 no, G Drewery 34, C Rook 32, J Kilvington 3-21)
The Red Lion sponsored 2nd XI hosted division leaders Stamford Bridge 2nd XI with a mixed team of youth, experience and a debutant in Nigel Tomlinson.
The Park were invited to bat first and soon found that the wicket was not conducive to free flowing strokes. Mark Fairweather made the initial breakthrough for the visitors, bowling Ian Hodson for 10. Rory and Lucas Stephenson added 19 and 9 respectively whilst skipper Darren Moody chipped in with 15. Tom Williamson completed a watchful knock at No. 4 with an unbeaten 21 and senior pro Rich Foster bolstered the final total with 16 as the Park mustered what looked to be an under par score of 124 for 7.
The Stamford reply suffered two early blows as run machine Christopher Smith was sent packing by Foster for a duck, as was Paul Milner. Skipper Moody then despatched Martyn Woodliffe and Jonathan Stevens back to the sheds as the visitors struggled to 30 for 4. The pace was taken off the ball with the introduction of Ryan Curtis and Tom Williamson who ended Ed Mills (21) and Charlie Wilson’s resistance. A partnership of 15 between Andrew Healey (28) and Daniel Davies (9) moved the Bridge closer to their target as catches went down but when Healey was finally caught by Ed Smith the tail collapsed as Williamson took control. A smart stumping by Blaster Barlow gave Curtis a second wicket and secured a much needed victory for the Park.
Tom Williamson’s all round performance earned him the Harpers man of the match award whilst the team was grateful to A Laverack Butchers for sponsoring the match ball. The 2nd XI takes a break this weekend with no fixture.
Londesborough Park 2nd XI 124-7 Stamford Bridge 2nd XI 93 (A Healey 28, T Williamson 4-18)